


a piece of me (to remember you by)

by idkimoutofideas



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Sharing Clothes, Siblings, brief mention of Doug, fuck the buckley parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 12:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idkimoutofideas/pseuds/idkimoutofideas
Summary: Five times Buck stole Maddies clothes and one time she let him.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	a piece of me (to remember you by)

**Author's Note:**

> This self indulgent fic is brought to you by the fact that I haven't seen my siblings in far too long, and decided to project that onto Buck and Maddie instead of actually dealing with it. It was also kind of inspired by a line in 'shouts turn into whispers'. Enjoy!

1.

Maddie was spending the night at a friends house. Which Evan was totally fine with. He was in second grade, he didn’t need his sister around all the time. It was far from the first sleepover she’d had, and he had been fine all the other times.

Except… he had a nightmare.

It was stupid, really. He didn’t even remember what happened in it. The only thing he knew was that he woke up shaking and afraid under his covers, and slid out of bed and across the hall before he could recognize what he was doing. He slipped quietly into Maddies room like he had countless other times, only to freeze when he realized that the bed was empty. 

He stood there for a long moment, blinking in the darkness, unsure what to do. He always ran to Maddies room when he had a bad dream, though he hadn’t needed to in a while. It was the only place he felt safe. But now he was scared, and she wasn’t there.

Evan briefly toyed with the idea of going to his parents, like kids did in the movies, but quickly dismissed it. He’d tried that once before and his mom just sent him back to bed. He was too old to get scared, his dad made that much clear when he said Evan shouldn’t still need a night light.

Evan heard noise come from his parents room, and realized he’d been standing there frozen for several minutes. He panicked, grabbed a shirt lying on the end of Maddies bed then scurried back to his room.

He settled in his bed, pulling his covers over his head and curling up around her shirt. He felt stupid doing it, but the shirt smelled like her, like safety, and as he hugged it to his chest he could feel himself start to relax. She wasn’t there, but it was enough to let him fall back asleep without nightmares.

He returned the shirt the next morning, draping it over the back of her chair before she got back. If she noticed that it moved overnight, she never said anything.

2\. 

Maddie was going to college. Penn State, which wasn’t far, but still. Evan would miss her.

He helped her get ready, helped her pack. She promised she’d call often, and he told himself that was enough.

Three weeks after she left, Evan found himself rifling through the clothes she left behind. There weren’t a lot - she’d taken most of them with her to college - so it didn’t take long to find what he was looking for: an old, oversized sweatshirt. It was big and baggy, and Maddie only wore it when she wanted to be extra comfy and knew she wouldn’t be seeing anyone she wanted to impress.

Evan pulled it on, and was surprised to find that it fit him about as well as it fit her, even though she was several years older. He took to wearing it whenever she called. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend they were in the same room.

“Why do you have my sweatshirt?” It was Christmas break, and Maddie was home for a whole three weeks.

“Oh, um, it was comfy?” Evan shrugged. He was sitting on the floor of his room, homework spread out in front of him because he promised his mom he would work on it. Maddie joined him, and was sitting on his bed telling him stories from college, so he wasn’t getting much work done. She had pulled the sweatshirt out from under a pile of blankets at the foot of his bed.

“I can’t believe you steal my clothes.” Maddie rolled her eyes.

“It fits me better than it fits you!” Evan protested.

“Somehow I doubt that. I’d been looking for it all term, I really thought I packed it.” Maddie took it back for the rest of break, though she only wore it once - Christmas morning.

Three weeks later when she left, he found the sweatshirt folded neatly at the foot of her bed.

3.

“Evan, have you seen my blue scarf?” Maddie had been packing for a few days now, getting ready to move to Boston with Doug. Evan was ‘helping’ by sitting at her desk and pestering her about what she was packing, what her plan was for when she got to Boston, and did she  _ really _ have to go?

“No.” Evan lied, fully aware that the scarf she was asking for was tucked away in a corner of his closet.

“Oh, ok.” Maddie gave him a look. “Well if you find it can you let me know? It’s one of my favorites.” 

“Sure.” Evan felt a small stab of guilt for stealing the scarf, but he quickly pushed it away. She was the one moving away and leaving him alone with their parents. He could keep her scarf, it was only fair.

4.

Evan lived out of his car. The Jeep had more storage space than he initially gave it credit for, but it was still packed to the brim most of the time. Especially when he agreed to give other people a lift. He’d gotten really good at car tetris and finding ways to fit everyone’s bags.

Not even two days after he initially left Hershey, Evan discovered a bag tucked in the trunk of the Jeep that contained a long sleeve shirt and a pair of leggings, along with a few other essential overnight items. He figured Maddie probably kept it there in case she needed a change of clothes during a shift, or had to stay later than anticipated, and just forgot to take it out when she gave him the car.

At first he kept the bag because he was feeling petty - she left the bag, obviously she didn’t really need it if she was willing to send it away. But as time went on, he still never sent it back, and never got rid of it. 

Even when space in the Jeep got tight, when there were three or more people packed in the car with all of their luggage, and having one more square foot of space would’ve been really nice, he never even considered throwing the bag out. He never did anything with it, just left it tucked in a corner of the car, checking on it every now and then to make sure it was still there. It was stupid, but he took comfort in having it there, like he had a piece of his sister everywhere he went.

5.

Maddie was safe.

Maddie was at the hospital, she was safe.

Buck repeated the words to himself, hoping that maybe if he said them enough times it might stick in his head and he would be able to rest.

He was back at their apartment, desperately trying to catch up on some of the sleep he had missed. It had been a few days since Buck found Maddie, bruised and bleeding in the snow. He’d been living at the hospital, refusing to leave her side, until she ordered him to go back home. Said that he needed to shower because he was stinking up the entire hospital.

He agreed, mostly because he knew she wanted to talk to Chimney in private.

He wasn’t having much luck sleeping though. It was a little hard sleeping in the apartment knowing that Doug had broken in and taken her from there. It didn’t help that Chimney’s blood still stained the bricks out front - no amount of bleach could get rid of it.

Buck killed time trying to put the apartment back together, tidying up where the detectives had stomped through the house. He hoped that if he wore himself out cleaning, then maybe he would be able to sleep easier.

Of course he had no such luck.

He hadn’t even bothered trying to sleep on the air mattress downstairs, and instead decided to crash in Maddies bed - he’d remake it in the morning. But he still couldn’t sleep. 

Buck groaned and rolled over for the millionth time, trying to get comfortable. He paused when he felt a lump under the blankets, and reached down to pull out a sweatshirt that had gotten tucked under the covers. It was a cheesy LA tourist sweatshirt, bright yellow with ‘I <3 LA’ emblazoned in bold black letters on the front, except the heart was a sun wearing a pair of shades. Buck had gotten it for her as a joke gift when she first decided to stay in the area. To find it there, in her bed, to see that she clearly wore it even though he’d gotten it as a joke… 

He wondered how many other of his stupid joke gift she kept.

It was too much, and Buck pulled the sweatshirt to his chest, hands tightening around it so much he was almost afraid he would rip it. He wanted to pull it on, but knew that it would be much too small for him. So he settled with holding it close and burying his face in it, letting his tears soak into the fabric.

+1

“How is it that you’re a foot taller than me and  _ still _ manage to steal my clothes?” Buck looked up from where he was sprawled on his couch to see Maddie standing a few feet away, a t-shirt held in her outstretched hand. It took him a second to recognize it as the one he’d taken from her place several weeks ago, when he’d gotten too drunk to drive home and needed a shirt to sleep in. 

“Hey, it’s not my fault you like wearing clothes that are too big for you.” Buck shot back with a grin. Maddie rolled her eyes and dropped onto the couch next to him, placing the bowl of popcorn she’d grabbed on the coffee table. They’d both just gotten off shift, and she had grabbed take out before swinging by his apartment so they could have dinner together and watch some movies.

“You’re gonna stretch it out.” Maddie complained, kicking her feet up on Bucks lap.

“Oh no, whatever will you do if I stretch out one of your t-shirts.” Buck mocked, and was quickly forced to duck when she kicked at him. “C’mon Mads you have  _ thousands _ of shirts like that. You didn’t even notice I took it.” To his credit, he had initially been planning on returning it, but a few days after he first borrowed it they’d gotten a call at work that hit a little too close to home, one that ended with three fatalities that they could do nothing about. When he’d gotten back after, he pulled on the shirt without a second thought and climbed into bed.

“For your information  _ Evan _ , I did notice it was missing, I just thought I misplaced it. After all, it doesn’t really fit you.” 

“It fits me better than it fits you.” Buck mumbled under his breath. Maddie glared at him and moved to kick him again, and he held up his hands in surrender. “Alright fine! Take it back if it means that much to you.” He said, trying to feign nonchalance. 

Maddie looked at him for a moment, eyes boring into him as he tried not to fidget under her gaze. Eventually she sighed and settled back into the couch. “Nah, you can keep it. You’ve already stretched it out.” 

Buck held back a smile of relief. “So, what do you want to watch?” He asked, picking up the remote.

“I think we should watch Elf.” Maddie declared, swiping the remote from his hands.

“What? Maddie it’s  _ July _ .” Buck protested.

“Exactly! It’s the perfect time to watch Elf.”

“I can’t believe you.” He groaned, but he didn’t make a move to stop her. She got the movie playing and adjusted their position so she was leaning against him, the popcorn bowl balanced between them.

“Next time you wanna steal my clothes you can just ask.” Maddie mumbled as the intro started playing.


End file.
